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TO THE XJNIOIT VOTERS 

OF THE COUNTIES OF 

ACCOMAC AND NORTHAMPTON 



Constrained by a matter of domestic concern admitting of no delay to 
withdraw, for the remainder of the Congressional canvass, from active 
particij)Htion in it on your shore, I heg, throngh the medium of the press, 
to say a few words to you before election day, and t e more especially 
that miny of you have not heard personally the elaborate expositions I 
have made of my representative acts, and my political position. 

It is persistently urged by my opponent, Dr. Giliett F. Watson, and 
his friends, that lie is a better Union man than 1 am, and, then fore, the 
more entitled to y<iur vote.<. I dispute the pretension as altogether arro- 
gant, and supremely bogus. 

I have, I trust, quite too much self respect to enter upon any special 
showing of my Union sentiments. If my whole history from the very 
dawn of this unhappy civil strife be not proof enougti of my devotion to 
the Union. I have none other to offer. The ignorance that ignores me in 
this regard, can never be enlightened by any beam that I can shed tipon 
it, and will be incorrigible, though a witness should come forth fresh 
from the dead. 

But when my opponent dares assert the claim of outranking me among 
Vnion men, he mu~t himself "come to the scratch." 

In my addresses at Horn Town, Accomac Court-House, and elsewhere, 
I called on him to say whether 1 was too mtich of a Union man for him, 
or not Union enough, so that I might have the data to make a comparison. 
He declined lo answer; whereupon I charged that he who would, at a 
life-and-(leath crisis in the country's fate, divide the Union party, whose 
office it is to save that country, might have Union sentiment on his tongue, 
but could hive none in his heart. 

Unable to bring my opponent out on this point, I proposed another test. 
I had voted lor the Conscription act, and Habeas Corpus or Indemnity act, 
regarding these as vital measures in the policy of the government for 
the vigorous prosecution of the war. 'J'hese votes called forth violent 
assault. The brother of my competitor. Dr. Arthur Waison, was among 
the first and the fiercest of my impeachers. 

So, to test the relative Unionism of him and myself, I put him the 
question distinctly, whether he would, had he occupif d my seat in ('on- 
gress, have voted for the Conscription and Indemnity acts? He again 
declined to answer, Saying the votes for those measures were my votes, 
'and I must explain them as best I could, and that when he should give 
such votes, it would be time enough fur him to give his views and answer 
questions. 

Now, I put it to the good and true Uniffln men of the Eastern Shore, 
M:heUier ,a .caAdi(|U(e who .j;efu^es ^o ,co£i|^it i^ipself o)i the most viu) 



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measures of Union policy, is as good a Union man as one who manfully 
avows himself in favor of those measures, and who actually sustained 
them by his votes? I have frankly declared to you that I did give the 
votes, that I regarded the measures voted for as indispensable to a vigorous 
prosecution of the war, and its speedy termination, and that if necessary I 
would give the votes again, but my opponent was as dumb as an oyster. 
^Vho is tlie better Union m:.n oi the two? Is he wlio is socking your sup- 
port worthy of it, who wants the manliness to avow his sentiments on 
the great questions of administrative policy connected with the rebellion? 
Does he fear the odium of what he regards as unpopular measures? 
Or may not secession influence be in his mind's eye? 

Not able to commit him on the chief war measures, I sought another 
test, and propounded to my opponent this interrogatory : " Were you not 
a Quartermaster or Assistant Quartermaster in thelState service of Vir- 
ginia, after the State had seceded?" lie was compelled to "own up;" 
for a respectable citizen, who was present, declared publicly in the Court- 
house, that he had sold Dr. Watson, as IState Quartermaster, GUU pounds 
of bacon, at a shilling a pound, and another most respectable citizen 
declared that his wagon and team transported the bacon from the inte- 
rior of the county to the State depository in Drummondtown. 

I then propounded this further question : " Whether he was not one of 
a number of officers, who, after the State had seceded, had met at Pun- 
gateaque, and by proper proceedings, called on (Jovernor Letcher and 
(lien. iiCe to know what should be done with suspected Union men on the 
Shore;" that is, I presume, whether they shouhl be thurst into a dungeon 
or be hung ? 

'J'he gentleman was compelled to admit his participation in the proceed- 
ings of this board of cfFicers, but claimed that the meeting took place before 
the State had adopted the secession ordinance. Bat in this my opponent 
is mistaken; for Mr. Parkes, who sold the bacon to this seceded State 
Quartermaster, declares that his books show that the date of the purchase 
was the 28th of May, lH(il, five days after the passage of the secession 
ordinance, while General West, the Brigadier in command of the State 
militia then organized against the United Slates, voluntarily informed me 
that the officers' meeting at Pungateaque took place in .June. 

My opponent, it seems, either had not made up his mind what position 
to take, or, like the bat in the great battle between the birds and the 
beasts, was looking out for the strong side. 

Union men of the Eastern Shore ! no such suspicions attach to me. 
While Dr. Watson was acting as Quartermaster against the Government 
of the Union, and while holding that post, asking Governor liCtcher and 
General ijse what should be done with the poor Union men in Accomac 
and Northampton, I was rather differently engaged : I was already suffer- 
ing bitter persecution, because I had too early resolved to stand by the 
the Stars and Stripes. ' 

On the 19lh of April, 1861, I was compelled to flee from Richmond, 
clandestinely, to avoid ha' ging by a mob, only because » few days before 
I had m ide in the Lfgishitu e a strong anti-secession speech. 

On the 27th of May, 1861, the day before Quartermaster Watson was 
buying Mr. Parkes's bacon, An attempt was made to shoot me in the back 
atHfteen paces' distance, \^h a double-barreled gun, nnd my life was 
saved f^'^lv hy thg knocking aside of the gun by a faead who was present, 



the leveller of ihe prn, rrmnrkirjr that "he mennt to send the d • - ■ J 

traitor to li 1." On the -Ith of June, my wife, from whcm I had I)eoome 

separated during the stampede from Hampton on the !^7th of May, wrote 
me as follow s : '• From all I can learn, you will not have the justice done 
you even of an apportunity of dcfendinor yourself, / think you had betler 
go. and sfaij awai//'' A valued femil^ friend on the samo day wrote: 
*• D )n''l cross liaclv river. Stay at Old Point until the excitement sub- 
sid-=;." 

1 the 7ih of .June, T received from Kobert Saunders, Fsq.. an old po- 
litical and |;er.suiia! fricMid. and firmer colleague in the Legislature, a letter 
of warning, iruui which the fullowing is an extract: 

" Williamsburg, June 7, 186i. 

''The suspicion? ag;>in=t yon !<ri-p not so mm-h from .your whsence in VV:isliin<rton, 
(:*Itln)iigh, |t(iliii|is. that hrtd something to do with it.) as from the following circum- 
Sliinces and alk-gation : 

"The cirfiiriisiaiKes are, 1st. That som? of the voteri: in the Poquosin roprlon voted 
agiiiist se. essioii, and "rave fUr it as the re.'son. tint you had told them th it the war 
Would re-uU troiii secession, :iiid th it ihey would he obliufed to fifrht in the ranks, 
wh!l^t the .-f' essioni>i,>!, who lii<i hi'en mosi at live in hringiiij; it on, would he officers, 
&e , &c. ; an) 2d. That you are liviiijr in Ham. t(jn, nudistiiriied when almost iill, if 
not all, the princi|ial ciiizeiis hive been obliged to go away. The allegation is, that 
the (jovtrumeiit of ihe I nited State.* is renliny your hotel, at Old Point, from you, to 
be used as a hos]»ital, instead of taking it, as ihey would do from any ciiizen whose 
synipiitiiies are not with the Adinini.^tration ot rresidenl Linco n. I frankly tell you 
that, Until all these things shall be dearly explained and disproved, it will not be 
safe fur you to cutne Hbo\e Hampton. 

'•I am, very faithfully, yours, * 

"RO. SAU.N'DERS. 

"Jos. Skg.vr, Esq." 

And so heeding the admonition T have never since ventured " above 
Hampton," but have been fruin that day to this an exile from my native 
laud, save where the Ln en's star-gemmed banner floats. 

On the ■-4th of iMay, '6i, the Ciuvernment took possession of my farm 
adjacent to Fortress ^lonroe, and still holds it, covered witii camps, tents, 
hospitals, and stables, and desolated almost beyund reparation's reach. The 
llygeia Hotel, at the Fortress, of which I owned a moie y, and which h.id 
already cost S^U UUO, had been before seize), and has since been destroyed 
by order of the Government, without a dime's allowance for damages or rent 
of either farm or hotel. 

Social desolation too has laid its hand heavy upon me. The happiness of the 
domestic fireside is blasted — the happy home is gone. Son, married daugh- 
ter, nephews, who were like ch Idren to me, son-in-law, and grand-children, 
1 have not laid eye on since the bloody strife began. Ail these sacrifices 
I have borne withou!; a murmur. . 

To refer to these personalities is not pleasant to me, but he who questions 
my loyalty wounds me in a tender point, und forces me to lift the veil of 
privacy from my private griefs. 

Now. let my opponent come forward and show his scars. There are mine. 
Can he match them? Can he show a bruise even? What service has he 
rendered the Union cau^e, or what sufiering his he endured, for the v3,000 
appointment ho carries in his pocket, and which ought to satisfy any reason- 
able greed ? 

'Ihen i put it to the Union men of Accomac and Northampton, who is 
the better Cuion man, he or 1? He who .iu the early fi^ht deliberated 



in "cold debate" whether "to be or not to be;" who held confederate 
office; who early smelt the bli)od of Union men ; and who in this canvass 
his shrunk from the approval of indispensable nicasuies of administration 
p.licy: or myself, comparatively a veteran in the serv cc, who has held no 
confederate office, who stood under the old flag from the start; who sustained 
the vital war measures of the Government, who can point to his wounds in 
proof of his fealty; and who has stifled no opinion on any questijn of the 
crisis? 

Can you indeed be serious in giving your support to Dr. Watson as being 
more loyal than I am ? Why, I had learned from ilie prece;)ts of Washington 
an 1 the early lathers to love and venerate the Union before he had doflFed his 
svvadling clothes, and I have grave doubts wheiher he has the scope of con- 
ception'to take in and fully ctmiprehend and appreciate, in all its glorious 
asj-ects and magnificent bearings, the mighty question of Union. 

That he falls short of such statesmanlike grasp, I have only to refer yon 
to his course in reference to my vote and speech on the Ship Canal bill. 
That was a measure of all-pervading, almost illimitable nationality, the 
7/io.s/ national enterprise ever suggested since we were a nation, it would 
have forged more chains to link together in interest and harmony all sections 
of the country, and generated more ties to render the Union indissoluble, 
than all the schemes proposed frtjm the foundation of the government to 
the present hour. 

That speech of your late Representative, I httmbly submit, is full of the 
most Catholic Union sentiment, and 1 am prouder of it, I beg to say, than 
all the speeches 1 ever made in a quarter of a century's service in public 
life. 1 would not for the honors of a thousand elections to Congress yield 
up the glory of having made it. No amount of gold and silver would pur- 
chase from me the erasure of my humble name from that proud list of ayes 
which weie cast for this incomparable Union-binding, L'nionsaving measure. 
1 thank God that I had the opportunity of placing my name on so honora- 
ble and so honored a record, and if the striking of it from that record would 
to-morrow secure me the entire vote of the district, 1 would scorn to receive 
it on any such condition. 

Fellow-citizens, you may not again return me to Congress. But if you 
do not, I shall not find it in my heart to complain, tor by electing me once, 
yoa have. awarded me the opportunity — which otherwise, had never betallen 
me— to mount, humble as -I am. a few rounds of the ladder wh'ch leads up 
to an h .norable distinction and enviable fame. You furnished an hnnible 
American the occasion to place himself near the side of the great South 
Carolinian, Mr. Calhoun, who, in his better day, despising all sectionalism 
as benea.h American state-manship, soared to etherial regions, and lo<-king 
, down only upon an entire and common country, recommended to his country- 
men an imperial system of internal imiu-ovenients, wh ch, had it been con- 
summated when he commended it, would have so strengthened the bonds 
of the Unioji that no human p )wer could have snapped them, and which 
would have held the Union of our (Jod-like fathers close, compact, and 
intact — a glorious entirety and magnificent integrity, instead of a disjunct i a 
tionality, and the tumbled pillars and scattered fragments of a once nntchle s 
fabric. Jn a word, 1 voted for the ship canal bill as involving a grand mca.>-ure 
of c.mcord, peace, love, and Uni.m. It is the brightest jewel that spaikles 
for me, whose lustre w 11 be among the chief of my e uthly posse^su)ns 
The polluted breath of an ignoble demagogueism may assay to dun its 
hriuhtiAsa V.iif tliP r>nl «hp<l li.-md of sttrue stalcsmuutbip will, in good tllLC, 



"Biil my npponcnt rcpmllafcs the p]'ecc1i and the vnfc. The |"iive vein 
of n:i i'liial. mns^ectioiial. L nion sent uieiitalify. wh ch luns ilivoii-ih thein. ct)ulcl 
not captiva e him. and this. too. while ]»roiessing t(i he par excellence a 
Tnioii man-— a hetter Union man than my.>-elf. IJe resov's to the usual 
■dcmagot;ue exj ed'eiit of exc tin<r prejud'ce ai:a'nst uie by telinu the i enple 
that this Sh p Canal will cost a great deal of nimiey. and hr iig we-! ern 
^rain in competition with your own ; and to effect his ainj. he does nor scru- 
ple inaccurately to represent the great measure, most probably having never 
read or seen the bill. 

iJc has told you in all his speeches that the work will cost fifty millions. 
lie took good caic not to let you know that the estimate of the most skilful 
•engineers make the cost (miy Slti/OO.Ot U. and that ; he bill called for no more, 
and not for one dollar fnni the Ireasuiy, and of course fur no taxes upon the 
people. Yet such is the fact. 

The engineers estimate the whole cost at about seventeen millions, 
while only the credit of the United Stales is loaned to the States of 
Illinois and New York by an issue of guarantied bonds, redeemable in 
twenty years, and to be paid off by the income of the improvement, which, 
it is clearly demonstrated in the fc^ngineers' Reports, will be far more than 
adequate to liquidate the whole amount of the bonds in far less than the 
allotted period of redemption. 

To make palpable my explanations on this point, I quote the language 
of Colonel Foster, a distinguished gentleman of the West, aiid a practical 
merchant and a statesman. He says, and says most truly : 

"So far a.« rnliited-to the lUitM)!;' woik. tlif liill iTofifiiscd lie is.-uincf of Oovprnnient 
bonds to ilif : inoiint of alioiil thirteen and oiic-liiiK iiiillioiis of > olliir?, rcdi-f-'iihlc in 
twfntv _ye:ir.«. jiikI hej'rii'g f-i.x pt-r cent, interest, with the pledge of llie loll;: f;)r llie 
j)!)yiiiet:t of acfniinc intcie.'^t, ami the ullimnie piivni' nt of priiici|ml. fur wliich ihe 
V!\st niM-s of animiil and v('irctnh!e food, aniuially flowing Ibroiigth this channel would 
have afrorcied an ; nqde pnaianty. The i-sue of the »■ hond- would h ivt- subs rved 
all of tl e pnrpo.-i? i f a direct : ppiojiriation, and would have coninianded fhe confi- 
dence ofcapit. Uf">^ Ht a time ■i\l.en Iheie wa-i never so muih tedun. an, capit.,-.!, sick- 
ing inve>inieni. So thiit ihe ol.j('( Is ( f this ?• Ill tne, wliiili eiiciiiinlered sucli di'ti r- 
niintii oj'|i(«siiion. niijilit If- ^nn'lnl d np in » .-ii gle [laingraph : The lonv nf the Gov- 
ernment crrdit. uil/nhl mi( hii'ff il.f lucaaily (fiiiiniiy a do/h r iy iuiali<-n. to conniruct a 
work hy tthicli the vhole tysttm f iniviynile untcrx (■/ the Vi i ed States uould h'Ve been 
j^/aced iindxr the protection and control of our yitn-lootx. avd by which • nr inteninlc vimcrce. 
itt iisfiow tvivurds ihe ocean, would have been relief ed of an almost intolerable burden/' 

So there is no taxation for you in this ship canal scheme. It will be a 
great good to us all — a blessing to the entire nation — and without its 
costing the people a dollar. 

Hut you are told that, when consummated, it will bring the grain of the 
AVest ill competition with the grain of the Eastern Shore. 

This argument, or rather this worn-out humbug, is as old u 
dcmagoguisni itself in my various drfencos of the internal improvemem 
policy, 1 have riddled it into shreds a thousand times, as l)j Witt Clintor 
and (Joverneur Morris, and Joseph C. Cabell had done long before the 
task devolved on me. 1 shall expose it no farther on the present occasior 
than to say — what is practically known to every farmsr on the Easterr 
Shore — that the vast accumulation of the products of the great \\ est ir 
the city of New York through the Erie Canal, and the net-work of tlu 
Northern railroads, so far from working competition with your produc 
lions, adds greatly to their value and price. Y'ou all know that you go 



better prices now than you did before the cannl and railroad systems ^ot 
under wny, and that you get better prices to-day in New York for your 
wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes tiian you do in any othrr market in the land. 

'I'he philosophy of the tiling I need not detail. The fact is so, and you 
know it; and if the fact be so, you need not perplex your heads about the 
'theory. 

. Fellow-Union men of the Eastern Shore ! I trust you will not recognize 
the unfounded claim of my opponent to be a better Union man than I am. It 
is all mistake. And if for no other reason, I beg you send me back to 
Congress that I may th^re again give to this gnind scheme of nationality 
and union — what 1 will assuredly again give it if 1 shall be there — a cordial 
support. 

JOS. SEGAR. 

May 1G, 1863. 



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